NZDH Inc launching a new DH series

Some of you may have noticed the New Zealand DH Inc. page pop up on Facebook recently marking the launch of a brand new downhill series here in New Zealand. It may only look like a North Island based series but the people behind the scenes know that to make something big you have to start somewhere and that is exactly what they have done. They have a three year plan to grow the series to include rounds through out the entire country to help develop the future of the sport and allow riders to develop the skills they need to be able to compete with the best.

The series to me looks a good step forward for downhill in New Zealand and hopefully I will be able to make it up to some rounds this year!

Check out the brief below straight from NZDH to learn more about what they are all about

The NZDH Championship Series is designed and programmed to cater for all various skill levels from within the New Zealand All Mountain Category in preparation for the following MTBNZ Summer National Series.

The NZDH organisation's plan is to help and support all riders who wish to be involved in this exciting sport, compete and take their developed skills to the next step.

Our focus for the next three years is to grow the NZDH series venues throughout the country - both North and South Island as a base competition for rider preparation to essentially further develop their skills to compete on a national level.

Developing Downhill Racing - Introducing Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking To The Riders Of New Zealand

Nelson Club Downhill Champs Final

Hey everyone

Over the weekend the final round of the Nelson MTB Club downhill series was on the newly rebuilt Broken Axe DH track in the Maitai Valley here in Nelson. With a good week of weather leading up to the race it was set to be perfect conditions for the weekend of riding and racing.

I spent Saturday afternoon doing a few practice runs on the track with some friends who had made the trip up from Christchurch for the weekend and after one run down the track they were loving it and couldn't wait to get back up for more, luckily having been involved with rebuilding the track I already

had the track locked in my memory from start to finish so I spent the afternoon showing them some of the fast lines I had found and having a bit of fun on the jumps.

After the disaster and disorganisation I had at the last round I made sure I had my bike washed, preped and ready to go for race day straight after we had finished riding and all of my gear clean and organised!

Race day rolled around with another perfect day blue skied day and I was eager to get into the racing! After a couple of practice runs to warm up and check out the track I was set to go and looking forward to seeing what sort of time I could lay down on the track.

With a flat tyre upsetting my first run and resulting in a DNF I did some quick work in the pits and got back up the hill for the second run which went a lot more to plan! I really wanted to take the win and my run was awesome, I managed to ride every line exactly how I wanted and carried really good speed especially on the fast choppy fire break section where my Zerode G1 ate it all up and made it feel like nothing.

I ended up winning the race by eight seconds and also taking out the overall club champion title so it was a great weekend for me and a really good confidence booster knowing that my training and hard work has been paying off.

My next event is on the 18th of October so until then its ba

ck on the bike and work on going faster!

Thanks to fixedfocus.co.nz for the awesome pic!

Another history lesson

Alright here is another history lesson for those of you haven't been around downhill for very long, I started racing downhill in 2000 and at that time there was no vitalmtb.com, dirtmag.com or facebook so you waited to find out about races the old fashion way, either in magazines or videos. Below is a video section from the Arai, Japan World Cup from 2001 that the king of mtb videos Alex Rankin had in Sprung 5 (if you haven't heard of Sprung, do some googleing now!).

The quality of this video is awesome, music, shots, everything is good and this is before anyone did movie editing on I movie!

Take some time and enjoy, then go and find every one of the Sprung series and be impressed!

Reuben Olorenshaw x Maitai Face

Check out this video of my Zerode Bicycles team mate Reuben Olorenshaw riding the top section of Maitai Face here in Nelson for a bit of Champery training before the World Champs next month!

Reuben is on his way to Europe at the moment to race the World Cup finals in Val Di Sole, Italy and then will be heading to Champery, Switzerland to race the World DH Championships in the under 19 class. Keep an eye out for him!

Zerode bike check

For any of you that are interested in bike set ups I thought id post up a spec list of what i'm running on my Zerode G1 this season and a few random shots of it.

Fork: 2012 Fox 40 RC2

Shock: 2012 Fox RC4 w/ Nuke Proof Ti spring

Cranks: Shimano Saint

Chain Ring: Gamut Race Ring 32t

Pedals: Crank Brothers Mallet/50 50

Seat + Post: SDG I-Fly and Carbon post

Bars: Raceface Atlas cut down to 760mm wide

Grips: ODI Ruffian lock on

Brakes: Shimano Saint

Wheels: Atomlab Pimp Light wheel set

Tyres: Maxxis Minnion F 2.5mm

Headset: Custom Zerode 2 degree angle set

The frame runs a Shimano Alfine 8 speed hub which is modified by Zerode for use with the frame. My bike is also running a full Ti bolt kit which is available from Zerode and also a set of prototype light weight chain adjusters.

Nelson Club Downhill Champs Round Two

Last weekend saw the running of round two of the Nelson Club downhill champs held on awesome Ben Nevis Mountain just outside of Nelson.

The hill has had downhill tracks on it since before I started riding and it is always fun even in the pouring rain! Luckily for us though the weekend was perfect blue skies although a little bit chilly with a good frost greeting us on race day.

After a few practice runs on Saturday I had the track pretty well dialed in and decided to just do a couple of runs on Sunday morning to save my energy as th

e track is pretty well established and wasn't going to change at all.

My first race run started well and I was feeling really good until about the midway point when I got that horrible feeling of a tyre going flat! Sure enough a couple of turns later all the air was gone so I limped my way to the finish and got it sorted and ready to go for race run number two.

Once again it was another good start to the run and I was pushing hard wanting to make up for the first run disaster. Unfortunately only seconds before where I had got my puncture I messed up my line coming into a turn and washed out hitting the ground hard and scrambling to get back up and going again.

Even with the crash in my second run I still managed to

take out second place and was close to the win so even though the weekend seemed like a disaster it was good to take some positives out of it knowing that I am still riding strong and fast and that my training is paying off.

My Zerode Bikes team mate Reuben Olorenshaw dominated the under19 class winning by 5 seconds and showing how much his training and preparation for the upcoming World Championships is paying off. Hes off for his first taste of racing in Europe in a couple of weeks so im looking forward to seeing how he will go there!